Boos & Bravos: July 18

Boo-ravo to monsoon storms, which caused damage to power lines, traffic signals and trees on Monday. The storm also resulted in flooding in some areas, posing hazards for motorists. Despite the damages and hazardous traveling conditions, a monsoon storm is always a welcome sight to watch and enjoy from a safe area.

Boo to increasing violence between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. According to USA Today, hostilities continued on Tuesday after an Egyptian-sponsored truce, which Hamas rejected, failed to take effect. The conflict has resulted in the deaths of 194 people and at least 1,400 wounded from Isreali airstrikes on Gaza as of Tuesday, according to Palestinian health authorities. Israel saw its first casualty on Tuesday after a mortar shell hit a volunteer delivering food to soldiers.

Bravo to a new bit of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." When a fan asked for more Buffy, creator Joss Whedon responded with a cute cartoon drawn on a napkin of Buffy shoving a stake into a vampire with a speech bubble over her head that says "pun!"

Boo to the trainwreck that was DashCon, a fan-run convention for Tumblr users that took place July 11-13 in Schaumburg, Illinois. On the first day of the con, a misunderstanding between the venue, the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel, and DashCon administrators caused DashCon to unprofessionally appeal to its conventiongoers, many of which were young teenagers, for donations to raise $17,000 lest the convention be shut down. On the second day, many of the convention's main guests, most notably the popular podcast group Welcome to Nightvale, walked out due to other financial issues.

Boo-ravo to the death of the titular character of Archie Comics in Wednesday's issue of Life With Archie. While the death of Archie, a staple of American comics since 1941, is shocking, it also makes a powerful political statement because he ends up taking a bullet for his best friend, Kevin Keller, the first openly gay character in the comic's universe.

Boo to a loss of a potential starter for ASU football. Would-be junior college transfer linebacker Darrius Caldwell will not be able to enroll at ASU next fall because of academic reasons. The Sun Devils were looking at Caldwell to replace Carl Bradford at the Devilbacker position.

Bravo to a unified Germany for winning the 2014 FIFA World Cup. With a 1-0 win over Argentina after a goal by Mario Gotze in the second half of extra time, Germany earned its first World Cup championship victory since 1990, when it was playing as West Germany.

Boo to a new MTV reality show. Following such programs like “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom” will be the new “Virgin Territory” in which teenaged virgins either try to lose it or discuss their decision to keep it until marriage. As a reminder, MTV used to play music.

Bravo to The Arizona Republic for its series on immigrant children. The Republic has been on top of covering the transportation of unaccompanied migrant children to holding facilities in Arizona, and the package "Pipeline of Children" showcases the larger story.

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